Want unique MSU sports collectables? Try Surplus Store

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This Rose Bowl banner hung inside MSU’s outdoor football practice field since 2011, two years before the Spartans made their return to Pasadena. It is for sale at the MSU Surplus Store for $550. Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal

This giant banner that has four retired Spartan football jerseys — George Webster (90), Don Coleman (78), Bubba Smith (95) and former president John Hannah (46, for his years of service) — hangs inside the MSU Surplus Store waiting for someone to buy it. The price tag: $1,250. Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal

James Ives, education coordinator for sustainability for the MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center, shows off the old lockers from the Duffy Daughterty Football Building that are for sale. Each unit is 45 inches wide by 78 inches tall by 31 inches deep and costs $225 apiece. Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal

This specially-built display case housed MSU basketball’s two national championship trophies until this spring and features a pair of color-changing lights built into it. It weighs 1,200 pounds and is 78 1/4 inches wide, 95 3/8 inches tall and 30 1/4 inches deep. The trophy case is up for auction at the MSU Surplus Store, with a minimum bid $2,500. Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal

The Spartans’ old lockers from the Duffy Daugherty Football Building are for sale at the MSU Surplus Store. They are 45 inches wide by 78 inches tall by 31 inches deep. Each locker costs $225, but there is a discount for those purchasing five or more. Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal

These banners for MSU baseball legends John Kobs and Robin Roberts, a Baseball Hall of Famer, are for sale at the MSU Surplus Store after being removed from the outfield walls at McLane Stadium. Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal

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This giant banner that has four retired Spartan football jerseys — George Webster (90), Don Coleman (78), Bubba Smith (95) and former president John Hannah (46, for his years of service) — hangs inside the MSU Surplus Store waiting for someone to buy it. The price tag: $1,250.(Photo: Chris Solari/Lansing State Journal)

EAST LANSING – Didn't have room for that Zamboni? Well, how about some of the old bench seating from Munn Ice Arena?

Missed out on the old Breslin Center message board? What about a display case that once housed Michigan State basketball's two national championship trophies?

The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center has become a secret trove of unique Spartan sports treasures for fans and collectors. It's the spot where items as varied as old jerseys, unused shoes, championship banners and carts from Forest Akers Golf Course are available to the public for purchase.

"We get the fans," said Billy Clark, a recycling and refuse group leader for the Surplus Store facility. "We get the people who are green – Green Nation. Like me."

The Surplus Store is where MSU departments send their old items for resale. Profits from what gets sold, minus minimal operating and processing fees that go to keeping the warehouse operating, return to those departments.

MSU's athletic department used to resell its old equipment on its own, a "garage sale" that used to coincide with the spring football game. In recent years, the Surplus Store has taken over that role.

"Primarily, everything we get here comes from campus and was purchased with MSU funds," said James Ives, education coordinator for sustainability. "We're the end-all, catch-all. Our main goal is to keep things out of the landfill. Before that happens, we really promote reuse. … We try to extend the life cycle, repurpose it back into the departments on campus and then back into the community. As far as athletics equipment and apparel, it's when they're done with it as well."

And there have been some interesting items, to say the least.

Some — such as the basketball trophy display case, which has two lights that change color and a Spartan helmet on the front — go up for bid with the anticipation that they will draw considerable interest. The minimum bid for the case is $2,500. The auction runs until June 3.

Some items draw more attention as curiosities, such as the Zamboni and Munn's old hockey board system that was replaced last summer. A few years back, the Surplus Store sold the old Breslin Center basketball floor (in its entirety) and the old Jenison Field House floor (in sections).

"People made tables out of them, or they ended up on walls in bars and restaurants. There's a lot of excitement there and people interested," Ives said. "The ice resurfacer? Yeah, that's more excitement than anything. You're obviously limited to who's going to use an ice resurfacer. I was trying to talk my knee doctor into buying it for his pond. He's into hockey, but he thought about it for a second."

Still others go on sale with fixed prices. With the renovations at the Duffy Daugherty Football Building, it meant a lot of the guts are being replaced. Many of those items are being sold at the Surplus Store. That includes the old wooden lockers, which are going for $225 apiece.

Those green golf carts were hot items last summer, even with 135 of them at $2,000 apiece, because they had the MSU "S" logo on the front of the hood. Old clusters of chair-back seats from Spartan Stadium generated strong interest a few years ago as well.

The stores still has some of the jerseys the Spartan football team wore from 2007 to '10 for sale at $165 each. MSU will be getting new uniforms this season, but the Surplus Store will only have a limited supply of the ones worn since 2011 and they won't be on sale until sometime in the late summer or early fall.

That doesn't even take into account the garments and shoes from Nike and other suppliers to MSU's athletic department that don't get used each year. Those end up on sale there as well.

"I work here, and I spent $460 when we had the merchandise sale," said Clark, who bought a pair of MSU basketball shoes for his son and some 4-XL and 5-XL clothing items for himself.

Then there are the banners. One with the retired football numbers of Don Coleman, Bubba Smith, George Webster and former MSU president John Hannah is on sale for $1,250. That used to hang on the walls of the indoor practice facility.

Another, a green tarp with the Rose Bowl logo on it, turned heads in 2011 when MSU coach Mark Dantonio had it put up on the fence at the outdoor football practice facility. The Spartans lost in the Big Ten Championship Game that year but went on to the Rose Bowl two years later. Price tag for that history: $550.

"People care about where it comes from and the history behind it," Ives said.

The Surplus Store will have its athletic apparel on sale for 30-percent off Friday and Saturday to coincide with the "Be A Tourist In Your Own Town" event in the area, then two additional days June 2 and 5. The football lockers also will be on sale for $100 each.

That is, unless some other collector swoops in and buys them first.

MSU Surplus Store

The store is at 468 Green Way, which comes off Farm Lane, north of Mt. Hope Ave. It's open to the public on Tuesdays, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Fridays 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It will have its athletic apparel on sale for 30-percent off Friday and Saturday to coincide with the "Be A Tourist In Your Own Town" event in the area, then two additional days June 2 and 5.